I thought somewhere around my 200th hour that I was almost done playing Endless Legend and that I was ready to move on to other games. I'd played all the factions, had experienced all the units and a variety of map sizes and victory conditions, and it seemed like there was really nothing left I needed to do with the game.



Just one more turn. Just one more game. Just one more neat idea to explore.



Now that I'm approaching a thousand hours with the game, I find that there are so many ways to make things fun and creative when it comes to Endless Legend. I don't think I'll be done for a while yet, and I've even started to contemplate modding in some quests (but it seems a little too daunting; anyone want to help code it?)



I'll be using this thread to share some of the things that I've done to keep the game fun for me. I hope that it can inspire you to enjoy my very favorite game for just one more turn; just one more game...



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Understanding Difficulty: Mastering the game to where you can get your first Endless win is a lot of fun, but once you understand how to exploit the AI and power game, that takes a lot of the challenge (and fun) out of the game. I prefer playing on a Hard difficulty level, and I deliberately take steps not to power game.



Telling Stories: I generally don't focus on victory conditions, except to know from the start what I'm aiming for. Even then, I've started to explore the idea of games where I don't really care if I win. My games are the story of one great empire among many. If the Necrophages swarm over me, and it all comes crashing down, that's acceptable and fun to me.



Diversity: I try to use all my faction units, even if I don't need to. I still have to explore more minor faction units. I've learned to not take it too badly when my units die (because I think it can be easy to get into the mindset where you never want to lose anyone); I just mourn the losses my people suffer, rebuild my armies and continue on with whatever plan my empire is up to.



Small, Crowded Worlds: Small worlds, with six empires, are a lot of fun. Short games full of action and drama. There's less need to settle and own everything; tall empires and wonders are a great alternative to spreading wide.



Huge, Massive Worlds: Huge sizes, with maximum empires, are also a lot of fun. You want to avoid that nagging desire to settle everything, though, so set the minor factions to hard. Once the minor factions go rabid, avoid ending the quest, and you'll end up with games where the world is never truly tamed. You can avoid pacifying areas you don't need to colonize for your empire's "story" and it creates a fun obstacle for the AI; it is so much fun to watch the AI engaging in wars with the wild factions around you (to the point where you can ambush their armies or watch as their cities fall); it's disruptive and interesting when you have to defend your borders against difficult foes that come from the darkness (and especially when every engagement is guaranteed to cost you units).



Limit Your Micromanaging: Especially on bigger maps, have more outposts and fewer heroes; not every settlement needs to build every building (even if you have the gold to buy them all out); deliberate play tall (and get attached to 2-3 of your favorite cities), but also play wide and shallow with border and trade towns; you can sit and optimize the districts for each of your 13 colonies, but that quickly becomes tedious; leave those border towns to produce gold or influence (and the occasional unit with extra production); only use heroes for your main cities and armies.



More Thematic Heroes: I personally like to limit my heroes to be specific to the faction I'm playing. This means that if I'm playing Cultists, I only have Cultist governors/generals; if I'm the playing Vaulters, it ends up the same way. Furthermore, I only ever hire a single unit of each name. This keeps my Academy more manageable (so I don't have 13 different Forgotten spies to level up and constantly micro manage). This intentionally-created-scarcity gives each of my heroes more personality. I care about how they grow, where I assign them, and what sort of gear I give them. It also makes watching the market more important, because heroes that I can use (according to my own house rules I set for myself; same faction and no duplicates) are lots more rare. All of this makes heroes much more fun and interesting for me.



Scarce Resources: This is so much fun. Regions matter a lot more when there are only 2-3 Hyperium/Mithrite nodes on the map. You fight with empires you've been allied with all game just to take those lucrative neighbor regions. Likewise, luxury resources are tedious when you have to buy/activate them constantly. It's more fun when your empire manages to find 1-2 good resources that compliment your empire's story; going to war over a source of Dye as Drakken, in a world where you don't use the market (more on this in a sec), and there are only one or two nodes in 30 regions is exciting and interesting!



Don't Use the Market: I don't like to ever use the market (except to purchase heroes). It just destroys the idea of scarcity that makes the game more fun and interesting for me. The only time I use the market is when I'm playing as the Roving Clans (or a derived faction) and it ends up being special and fun to be able to buy goods and mercenaries. This is a big source of fun for me.



Custom Factions: This is a ton of fun for me when I'm deliberately not trying to power game (which I generally don't find very fun). It's neat to create factions where all the traits fit thematically; it's okay to be a bit weak or situational because it's fun and interesting to do things like specializing in pillaging during the long Winters when A Song Of Ice, Only Ice kicks in. That becomes a part of the story of your people, and it alters the way you play. I also love to create stories and themes for my new factions.



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Things I'd love to mod (if someone wants to help with the code)



Permanent hard (or even harder) minor factions: Because it's fun to have to tame the world of Auriga; it's neat watching empires grow and shrink as the hordes of minor factions rampage through the unsettled territories.



Lots and lots of quests: Objectives and stories that pop up to derail your empire plans; stories you follow even if the rewards don't justify the investment because they're fun and they lead places and they disrupt your games in interesting ways. I would love to create long and elaborate quest lines; lots and lots of them.



Heroes: More unique heroes for each faction; very simple back stories that don't modify the game's lore; slightly different (but balanced) configurations of skills; lots of different names (so you don't have all the repetitions)



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This is a work in progress! Feel free to share your own ideas with me as well. <3



P.S. I might even do some Let's Play videos that focus on this topic. I really feel very passionately about this game. Stay tuned!

Solid thread. I've always found alternate ways of playing the game so as to keep it fresh. Hope others share their ways too!

Im playing my 221th hour now and Im fall deeply in love with the game!

Since its release Ive played every major 4x titles that came out. And each time I came back to enjoy Endless legend even more and more!

The game is a whole lot charming experience for me!



Now my hint for endless experience. I love mastering one faction.

How to play them in different settings - both world and difficulty? How to do an optimal approach techwise and citywise?

How to achieve different victory conditions? Which minor faction supports each of your approaches?

When is optimal to go wide and to go tall? Which heroes will benefit these exact settings?

Which world wonders is worth achieving? How to overcome nearby enemies? Which trinkets are worth buying and when?



I've found that the game now has perfect replayability for my taste. It has SO much depth comparing almost every other major 4x titles at the moment.

I wish best of all to Amplitude team! Keep up doing inspiring games, guys!

avl8 wrote:


Now my hint for endless experience. I love mastering one faction.

I have a similar approach, but way fewer hours! If you have time to write a guide, please share! ^_^

Lots and lots of quests: Objectives and stories that pop up to derail your empire plans; stories you follow even if the rewards don't justify the investment because they're fun and they lead places and they disrupt your games in interesting ways. I would love to create long and elaborate quest lines; lots and lots of them.



Heroes: More unique heroes for each faction; very simple back stories that don't modify the game's lore; slightly different (but balanced) configurations of skills; lots of different names (so you don't have all the repetitions)

The first was addressed by Amplitude with The Lost Tales. Not that I wouldn.t like even more quests though ^^



The second is currently being requested by quite a few users here. Wouldn.t mind seeing it added along the upcoming patches ^^

Very neat ideas, thanks! I always like changing up playstyles like that.

lilyophelia wrote:




Understanding Difficulty: Mastering the game to where you can get your first Endless win is a lot of fun, but once you understand how to exploit the AI and power game, that takes a lot of the challenge (and fun) out of the game. I prefer playing on a Hard difficulty level, and I deliberately take steps not to power game.

This is actually something I've come to realize for many games. In some of my games with a lot of hours in them, I'll build up a list of "cheese & exploits" to avoid, which I find are too powerful / game-breaking when used (E.G. "Battle Drawbridges" in Dwarf Fortress). I'm still very new to Endless legend (only 3 games in), but have played a good bit of Endless Space, and am already realizing how much sway you can hold over the AI via good use of the Diplomacy option.



Would anyone mind sharing some of tactics which are more commonly considered "power gaming" / exploity, which would be good to avoid if trying for a more fair-ish fight with the AI?